NZ exchange audience ‘bigger than Facebook’

With a single transaction, advertisers will be able to access New Zealand audiences at scale, across various platforms.

The Kiwi Premium Advertising Exchange – a joint venture by New Zealand news publishers – will launch with a bigger audience than Facebook in NZ, according to the new body’s consulting chief executive Duncan Arthur.

The service will provide programmatic options for advertisers to buy inventory across NZ’s media businesses.

To be known as KPEX, the exchange has been set up by Fairfax Media, APN News & Media’s NZME, MediaWorks, and TVNZ as an independent company, with the four news publishers as equal partners.

It will be launched next month, powered by global technology company Rubicon Project.

Mr Arthur said the exchange would provide a highly efficient way to buy quality, known local brands at scale across various platforms in a single transaction.

“It helps support local publishing rather than global powerhouses,” he said.

“At launch KPEX will have a NZ audience slightly larger than Facebook – and we intend to grow from there by adding new partners over time.”

“A significant volume of that audience will come via mobile, but obviously that varies depending on target audience.”

Mr Arthur said the service was the first time New Zealand media companies had combined their inventory for use in a private marketplace.

“Advertisers want the efficiency of real-time bidding and the certainty that their ads will appear in brand-safe environments next to quality New Zealand content,” he said.

Mr Arthur is a former commercial director of The Guardian Australia and played a leading role in the establishment of the Pangaea Alliance, which offers inventory from international publishers including The Guardian, The Financial Times, CNN, Reuters and The Economist.

To begin, KPEX’s advertising inventory will be from the four news publishers, with other premium local publishers joining over time.

The four publishers said the aim of the partnership was to give clients a stronger local offering.

Although a portion of inventory from each publisher will go into the exchange, each publisher will maintain their unique, direct sales operations.